Strong Subject
by Leather Sky
Summary: Persona 3. As summer progresses Junpei struggles with his growing sense of inadequacy up against Minato's extraordinary abilities and Akihiko's hard-to-follow example. But when Akihiko tries to help with Junpei's grades, there's trouble. Junpei/Akihiko


"Why do _I_ have to go?" Junpei protested.

"Because you have nothing better to do." Mitsuru's response was imperious (and completely true). Junpei scowled and took the white packet from her hand, muttered an appropriate response to her polite "thank you" and strode out of the lobby. He had absolutely no desire to go back to school after spending all day there.

On the way over he allowed himself a peek into what he carried. Perplexed, he shook the pills out into his hand. After a moment his brow cleared…painkillers. So, Senpai was in worse shape than he let on…he shoved the pills back into the packet and folded it over again. It was still stupid to make Junpei take them over…maybe he _had_ plans, Mitsuru-senpai didn't know. But, he supposed someone as busy and important as her couldn't be bothered with Junpei's plans to get some ramen and fall asleep at the Manga Café again.

When he got to Gekkodan he headed straight back to the gym. Akihiko-senpai ought to be in the ring demolishing someone or other. As it happened, Junpei came in on the tail end of the massacre. He had to pick his way through all the "boxing fans" watching the practice. All of them were girls, making Junpei suspect that they were merely there to watch Senpai. It made him bitter, since he knew that Akihiko-senpai would either never realize this or never do anything about it if he did. He bit his lip and watched one of the girls. She was clearly busy undressing Senpai with her eyes and it took him a minute to get her attention.

"I live with him you know." Junpei made his voice sound as casual as possible. "We're actually pretty good friends."

The girl (and several of her friends) rounded on him and suddenly he was in a thicket of eager high-pitched voices asking him what were in his opinion stupid questions. He couldn't keep track of most of them, but he answered what he could impatiently. "Well, he eats beef bowls. I think he lives on 'em or something. That and that nasty looking protein stuff he drinks…um, no he doesn't have a girlfriend…but all he cares about is training anyway, why are you girls even interested in a guy like that?"

This caused a very vehement reaction from all concerned and Junpei threw his hands up in defense. He was in the middle of being harangued about how he "just didn't understand" and "couldn't be a good friend to say things like that" when he felt a hand fall heavily on his shoulder. He looked up, relieved to see Akihiko-senpai. Having the attention of so many girls at once hadn't turned out the way he had imagined, and he was eager for once to let Senpai be the focus again.

Akihiko surveyed everyone calmly with inscrutable gray eyes and then looked back at Junpei. "What can I do for you, 'buddy?'"

Junpei gulped and thrust the packet at him. Akihiko glanced inside and then sighed. "She worries too much…all right, thank you." Junpei felt like he had just been dismissed. Annoyed, he turned to go. Unexpectedly, Senpai spoke up behind him. "Are you heading back? Er…let's walk together." Junpei half-turned, a bit surprised, as Senpai blew past him. After that he could only match strides with him and follow, casting a few longing backward glances at all those lovely unattainable girls. As they stopped off at the locker room for Senpai's clothes, Junpei blurted out, "How could you pass up an opportunity like that, man?"

Akihiko sat down on a bench and slid off his gloves. "What are you talking about?"

Junpei sighed. "_You_ know. Those girls were all there to watch you. Didn't you like at least one or two of 'em?"

"I'm not a pervert like you."

Junpei snorted. "You're a _guy_, aren't ya? I'm telling you, the way you pass them all up is a crying shame. You could at least give me one or two," he added wistfully. A moment later one of Akihiko's boxing gloves hit him in the face, almost taking his hat off. Junpei caught it awkwardly and then looked at Akihiko angrily. Senpai was glaring at him.

"It doesn't work like that. Besides…"

"Yeah? What?"

But Akihiko only looked down after a moment. There was no way in hell he was going to tell Junpei of all people how hard it actually was for him to talk to girls, or about the stupid worthless book on the subject he kept hidden in one of his desk drawers. They looked, sure, but they all expected him to make the first move, and he just couldn't do it for some reason. Finally he said, "Besides, I don't care about any of that stuff."

Junpei shook his head and reflected on the unfairness of the universe while Akihiko got up to go take a quick shower. His pleasant afternoon was officially ruined now. Not only had he been sent on a boring errand, he'd gotten reamed by a bunch of cute girls and now he was hanging around in a smelly locker room waiting for Akihiko-senpai to finish up so they could walk home together just because Senpai didn't feel like facing his little fan club. He was kicking one of the lockers when Akihiko emerged again, skin still giving off steam.

"Cut that out! Jeez, what are you, twelve?"

Junpei shot a sullen glance at him. "I'm just bored, that's all. I had stuff I wanted to do, you know?"

Akihiko dried himself off and got his school uniform. "Well, sorry. It wasn't my idea for you to come all the way out here." Junpei didn't reply so Akihiko did his best to get dressed quickly, since he didn't have any particular desire to hold Junpei up (even if he was being an ass).

Junpei was meanwhile staring at Akihiko without really being aware of it. He had started by thinking "What does he have that I don't have, anyway," still feeling bitter about the girls from earlier. But then his expression lost a little of its edge and he frowned. There _was_ something…the way he carried himself, the way he did even something simple like getting dressed. It might have been grace, or strength, or confidence, but it was definitely something Junpei didn't have. Akihiko looked up, feeling eyes on him. Junpei was lost in his own thoughts and didn't look away.

"… …what, you're staring at guys now?"

Junpei started a little at the sound of spoken words. "…eh?"

Akihiko furrowed his brow but didn't say anything further about it. "Come on…let's get out of here. We can go get a beef bowl."

Junpei rolled his eyes but Akihiko was already ahead of him again.

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

Everyone in SEES had their own private demons plaguing them, so it was hard for anyone to really notice a subtle change in anyone else. Junpei was silently growing more and more bitter when he thought about Minato, and Senpai, and how different he was from them. Minato kept proving time and time again that he could literally do _anything_, whether it came to excelling in school, picking up girls, or fighting Shadows. Senpai had a lot to fall back on too…neither of them would be in bad shape when Dark Hour and the threat had finally ended. He, on the other hand…this was the first time in his life he was special, and it wasn't going to last. He wanted the Shadows to go away just like everyone else, but he knew that as soon as they did, so did everything that made him important. He hated it, and he hated himself even more for thinking like that. And so the days passed.

On July 7th the next full moon came.

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

Akihiko woke up in the middle of taking a shower. For some reason he couldn't seem to focus on anything. He didn't really know why he was in this bizarrely decorated bathroom or where it was or how he had gotten there. Dizzily, he cut off the water (after he figured out how to work the fancy, overdone taps) and stepped out. After glancing around the bathroom he made a frown of distaste and opened the door cautiously. If anything, the bedroom beyond was worse. What kind of insane place was this…? Akihiko's searching eyes came across Junpei sitting on about the tackiest bed he had ever seen, rubbing his head and looking even more disoriented.

Repressing a shudder and trying not to look at the heart-shaped bed more than he had to, Akihiko walked up to him and shook Junpei's shoulder. "Hey…Hey, Iori. Come on."

Junpei looked up at him, obviously still in a daze. He blinked a couple of times and then put his hand on Akihiko's damp arm. "Hey…hey, Senpai…I was wondering…"

Akihiko nodded encouragingly. "Yeah?" Junpei leaned forward.

A moment later he was knocked back across the bed by Akihiko's signature right hook. Akihiko looked at him furiously for a moment and then went off to find his clothes, swearing. Junpei's head had meanwhile been cleared pretty effectively by that and he sat up again, rubbing his face guiltily. Before Senpai came back into the room, Junpei licked his lips slowly, tasting him again. He had no idea why he had kissed him.

He let Akihiko do all the talking when Fuuka finally managed to get ahold of them again. They learned that Yukari and Minato had been separated from them and went hastily to rejoin them. When Minato actually had the balls to ask them if anything had "happened," Akihiko immediately went on the defensive while Junpei remained awkwardly silent. They went on to defeat the Shadow that had split them up and clouded their minds, and Junpei, already tense now, felt even more bitter as he watched Minato fight. As they all left that night he said things he regretted.

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

Summer wore on and Mitsuru treated them all to a vacation. Junpei eventually apologized to Minato and tried to get his mind off of his problems with some serious girl-chasing. He even managed to talk Akihiko into joining them, which made him hope that maybe he was forgiven. The three of them failed miserably though; Junpei was once again amazed at how Akihiko-senpai managed to mess up every chance that came his way. When they all finally found the perfect girl, she turned out to be a _robot_. Clearly things were not going his way. He almost felt like throwing in the towel, especially when he noticed in the coming days and weeks that Yuka-tan, who he considered to be by far the most difficult and uptight girl he knew, was actually falling for Minato. Apparently he was doomed to walk alone and that was that. It depressed him, and somehow or other, it sent his thoughts in strange directions.

One thing that really disturbed him was how certain unwelcome scenes started to play and replay themselves in his mind, at the most unwelcome of times. Some of them were innocuous…he would remember the first time Senpai had demonstrated the Evoker to him, the terror and the excitement it gave him. He would see a flash of memory he'd had no idea his mind had bothered to store; Akihiko-senpai training, back to him, the cords standing out on his neck and dark spots of perspiration forming on his white SOS shirt. Or the way that he looked when he was knocked down in combat…or the way he ate beef bowls. Other images weren't so innocent, these were hazy ones from the battle at the hotel at Shirakawa Boulevard or ones he made up himself. After a day or two of trying to drive these images from his mind, he gave up and began to use them instead, hating himself for it.

Mitsuru and Akihiko had by this time noticed just how much trouble Junpei was having with his grades, even if they weren't noticing the other things. It clearly wasn't reasonable for Mitsuru to try and study with him, so the enviable task fell to Akihiko. Accordingly, one evening he gathered all of his patience in both hands and knocked on Junpei's door. There was no answer from within, and this irritated Akihiko a little since there was plainly light coming from under the door. He knocked again. "Come on, Iori, I know you're in there. I need to talk to you about school."

He only got a gruff "Go away" for his trouble. Akihiko was not amused and he was also not used to being spoken to disrespectfully. He didn't like it much, and he threw open the door indignantly.

He immediately wished he hadn't. But as he was swiftly retreating he heard Minato's footsteps in the hall and he was forced to dart back inside and shut the door. He locked it, facing away from Junpei, and didn't turn to face him when he spoke again. "…don't you ever think about anything else besides sex?"

Junpei had sat up by now and pulled the sheets over his lap. "You're the one who barged in," he said bitterly. "You're a guy, you know how it is. You should have at least been able to guess what I was up to."

Akihiko glared at him. "I _don't_ know how it is, as a matter of fact. But then, I don't have a one-track mind either." Junpei sighed and asked Akihiko what the hell he wanted to see him about, anyway.

"I heard about how you did on the exam. I think we should study together. I know it's hard to balance everything that's going on with your school life, but we have to be prepared to pick up where we left off when we've accomplished our goal."

Junpei felt stung by the reminder that soon everything would be over and his voice was hard when he replied. "I'm aware of that, thanks. And I don't care. So if you'll just shut the door on your way out." He flopped back onto his side.

Akihiko grabbed a chair (it took a second to find one in the chaos of Junpei's room) and sat in it firmly. "You're not getting out of it that easy. If I have to I'll sit here all night until you get up and come with me."

Junpei grimaced then. "Do I have to spell it out for you? Look, I was in the middle of something. If you want me to come study, okay, but give me time to finish up."

"…are you _kidding_?"

"It's not something you can magically switch off, Senpai…"

Akihiko blinked and then his jaw set. "No. How do I know that once I leave you won't just lock the door and not come out? I don't trust you."

Junpei stared back at him and then closed his eyes. "Fine…stay."

After a moment Akihiko started in his chair. "What the hell are you doing?!"

Junpei's voice came back a little unevenly. "If you don't like it, turn the chair around." He half-listened for it, but Senpai didn't turn the chair around. That meant he must be watching. By this point, Junpei didn't care; in fact, it added to it. He was almost there when Senpai came over and knelt on the floor next to him with his elbows on the bed.

"…what do you think about?"

Junpei's answer sounded sarcastic, even though it was the truth. "You…_obviously_."

"Asshole…" Akihiko-senpai's voice trembled a little, though.

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

Akihiko gave up on trying to get Junpei to study after that. He hadn't even managed to study with him that first night…when Junpei had finally opened his eyes and looked up at him, he'd wordlessly turned around and gone back to his room, shaken. He still felt ashamed whenever he thought about it. Unfortunately, it kept coming back to him, until he was forced to admit that he must be curious. He hadn't been lying when he'd said that he didn't do things like that. But the way Junpei's face had looked was hard to erase. He broke down one night and tried it, but stopped himself before he finished, feeling even more ashamed. As he put his gloves back on and started to distract himself with the punching bag, he told himself that Junpei might be lacking in self-control, but _he_ wasn't. He didn't need things like that. He was different.

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

It was a night or two later and Akihiko was studying at his desk when a knock came at the door. He frowned uneasily and called out, "Who is it?"

"It's me. I was told to come here on pain of Execution." Junpei didn't sound very thrilled either.

Akihiko cursed himself for not following up with Mitsuru. He hadn't wanted to make up anything about why their effort to help Junpei wasn't going to work, though, and so he hadn't told her anything at all. So of course she had assumed Akihiko was still trying and Junpei was slacking off. Stupid…he should have come up with something. He called back, "Look, I'll tell her you studied. So let's not and say we did."

"Heh…scared of me?" Junpei could be heard shifting and turning to go outside the door. As he was walking back to his room though the door slowly opened behind him.

"Take that back."

Junpei turned to face Akihiko and calmly shook his head. Akihiko scowled. "Should I be scared? After all, I don't know what all weird stuff you've been thinking about doing."

Junpei walked right back up to him. "I can tell you in detail if you want." He had the pleasure of seeing Akihiko-senpai frown uncertainly and seem to waver in the doorway. It gave him an idea. Junpei sighed and made his face look more serious. "Look, I know I could use some help. So if it's okay, I really would appreciate it if you gave me a little time tonight…but if you're busy I understand."

Akihiko's eyebrows rose. "You mean…you really do want to try and study?" It was all Junpei could do not to grin; Senpai's good nature was just too easy to take advantage of. "That's right," he said humbly. As he had hoped, Akihiko opened the door wider to let him in.

He watched Senpai go back over to his desk and pull out a different notebook than the one he had been using. "Okay, you're on the Kamakura Shogunate, right?" He looked so intent that Junpei did let himself smile. He even listened for awhile. But then he noticed a slim book poking out from under Akihiko's pile of textbooks and quickly grabbed it up before Senpai could stop him. After scanning the title he started to laugh.

Akihiko's cheeks burned. He hadn't planned on letting Junpei in so he hadn't put away the book. "Shut up." He tried to snatch the book back but Junpei scooted further away. "So…the mighty Akihiko-senpai's secret is revealed! He reads books about how to talk to girls!" Akihiko, alarmed at the volume of Junpei's voice, lunged at him. Junpei was taken off guard and they struggled for a bit until Akihiko got the book from him and went and put it back in his desk drawer where it belonged. Junpei stayed on the bed watching him and looking smug.

Akihiko rounded on him furiously. "So what if I do?" Then he actually seemed to run out of steam. "Damn thing isn't any good anyway." Junpei sat up and grinned. "Aww…poor Senpai." Akihiko clenched one of his fists. "You're pushing it."

Junpei switched gears on him again, though. "So…I guess you do think about stuff like that, then." Akihiko took a step back. "No…I mean…well anyway, not like you!" Junpei's voice got a little quieter. "So I guess that means you still haven't…?"

That put Akihiko into a tight place. He didn't like lying. But on the other hand, it wasn't like he'd finished or anything. "N-no…of course not!" Junpei wasn't fooled though, Akihiko could tell. He had hesitated for too long. When Junpei spoke again it was much too familiar for Akihiko's taste. "So…did you like it?"

"Are we going to study or not?"

"I asked you a question."

Akihiko sat down angrily. "No, I didn't like it. I stopped, actually. I don't see any reason to let myself give up control like that." He looked defiantly at Junpei and then back at his notebook. "Now, after Minamoto's death, the Hojo family took over the Shogunate and ran it until 1333..."

"How could you just stop?"

Akihiko slammed his book shut. "Get out."

"Bet it hurt."

"GET OUT!"

"But…the Kamakura Shogunate was just getting interesting."

"You know that's a damned lie."

Junpei sighed and shook his head. "If Mitsuru-senpai could hear you now."

That was enough for Akihiko. He got up, determined to drag Junpei out of bed and kick his ass out the door if that was what it took. Junpei immediately got quiet and moved back to give him room. After that everything was clumsy and confused and mostly silent.

At 11:45 Akihiko was awakened with a start by his alarm. They were due to meet at Tartarus tonight. He looked over at Junpei, who had been sleeping next to him fitfully, and then sat up. His clothes were still on (for the most part) but they were in a disarray and it took him a minute or two to get everything back to normal. Junpei was yawning and rubbing his eyes. Finally Akihiko pulled his gloves on and addressed him, not looking at him. "I…that didn't mean anything. Okay?" Junpei looked up at him. "Yeah, sure." Akihiko nodded jerkily and walked over to the door. "Just close it on the way out…see you there."

Junpei watched him leave and then set about getting his own clothes back into place.

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

Junpei only had to wait a day or two before the knock came at his door. "It's open," he said, not bothering to pause his video game. He felt, rather than heard, Senpai come in and sit down beside him. When he had finished the level Junpei saved and then turned to look at him. "Let me guess…you want to study."


End file.
